My 68’ Rustic Charger Resto

[Deere842]

Hey Fellas,

I’m new here and picked up my first mopar. I’m 25 and nothing says financial stability like trying to restore a mopar . I’ve been working on cars every chance I could growing up and worked for a restoration shop a couple of years full time out of high school. Now I’m doing commercial HVAC and enjoy doing this as a hobby. So buckle up boys, we are going full steam ahead.

Scooped up this 68’ Charger a couple of months back and figured I should just start a thread for the car seeing that I have plenty of questions and would also like to give back to others needing info.

 

[Deere842]

First thing is I stripped the car down to its bare shell (or what’s left of it) to see what I was working with. Fortunately after enough penetrating spray, I only broke every other bolt! Haha.

 

[Deere842]

Now, the fun part. The rear frame rails on the car are pretty much non existent along with the trunk floor. The car fortunately came with a set of OEM rear frame rails from a southern car. Due to the extent of rust repair that the car will be ungoing, I figured the smart thing to do would be to build a body jig to keep the car straight.

I followed the blueprints and the pictures from: http://www.521restorations.com/index.pl?page=framejig

It was definitely a challenge building it due to my garage floor not being perfectly flat and the jig being almost 16’ long. I ended up leveling both ends up then pulling string very tightly along the side and the top / bottom of the tubes in order to shim them to get them almost perfectly flat. After tons of tacking, measuring & beers, the jig is within a 1/16” overall (which is good enough in my book).

I picked up some cheap casters from harbor freight and welded some 1” tube steel on the outside corners with 1/2” all-thread on all (4) corners. So that way I can level the jig and keep it from rolling.

 

[Deere842]

Next, I set the car down on the jig and everything went well until I saw the passenger side frame rail with a 3/4” and the drivers side 1/4” gaps above where it’s supposed sitting.

This is the PS frame rail bent 3/4” above the jig. Notice the rust spot to the left.

You can see how the inner fender got pushed back due to the frame rail getting bent up.

This is the top of the inner fender, I noticed that the inner fender was bent down and now this makes sense. They bent the inner fender down because the frame rail was bent up and raise that fender. Well, they had these crease covered up with body filler.

 

[dadsbee]

So nice to see it being done right!

 

[dogpro]

Next, I set the car down on the jig and everything went well until I saw the passenger side frame rail with a 3/4” and the drivers side 1/4” gaps above where it’s supposed sitting.


View attachment 840141 View attachment 840145 View attachment 840146

This is the PS frame rail bent 3/4” above the jig. Notice the rust spot to the left.

View attachment 840148 View attachment 840149

You can see how the inner fender got pushed back due to the frame rail getting bent up.

View attachment 840150

This is the top of the inner fender, I noticed that the inner fender was bent down and now this makes sense. They bent the inner fender down because the frame rail was bent up and raise that fender. Well, they had these crease covered up with body filler.
View attachment 840151 View attachment 840147

Looks like you have a good start! I know rust is never fun but keep plugging away

 

[66 Sat]

Mate I love what you're doing here, and doing it yourself which will save you tens of thousands. Looking forward to seeing it come along. Good luck!

 

[pearljam724]

Congrats. Very inspiring, seeing younger people investing the love, time, money and effort into restoring a vintage American made car. Rather than a modern piece of cheap foreign crap that everyone seems to have.
I just don’t get, “ nothing says financial stability like restoring a Mopar ? “ Restoring a Mopar has very little to do with financial stability. If anything, it makes financial stable people, loose financial stability. I don’t get that part ?

 

[91r/t]

Stick around here and you will find TONS and TONS of info that you will/may need. Great group of guys and gals! Welcome and good luck on the Charger!

 

[Darter6]

Welcome to the site. You are a better man than I am. Go for it and keep posting your progress.

 

[Basket case]

keep at it, it'll be a beauty when youre done

 

[hanks73340]

Love what you're doing. Great car to restore also. Wish I had your garage and the hoist! and welcome from Michigan

 

[oldbee]

Looks like a project! At least you have a few years to get it done. Good luck.

 

[Deere842]

So nice to see it being done right!

Thank you, trying my best!

Mate I love what you're doing here, and doing it yourself which will save you tens of thousands. Looking forward to seeing it come along. Good luck!

That’s the goal, atleast I’ll know what I have when I’m done. Thanks again!!

Congrats. Very inspiring, seeing younger people investing the love, time, money and effort into restoring a vintage American made car. Rather than a modern piece of cheap foreign crap that everyone seems to have.
I just don’t get, “ nothing says financial stability like restoring a Mopar ? “ Restoring a Mopar has very little to do with financial stability. If anything, it makes financial stable people, loose financial stability. I don’t get that part ?

I’m just not attracted to new cars either, they have no “soul” per say. I’ve always wanted a 2nd gen Charger and decided to save for awhile until I found something. I was being sarcastic when I said that about financial stability haha . I’ll own a portion of AMD stock when I’m done!!

Stick around here and you will find TONS and TONS of info that you will/may need. Great group of guys and gals! Welcome and good luck on the Charger!

You’re right, a lot of valuable information for sure. Thank you, sir!

Love what you're doing. Great car to restore also. Wish I had your garage and the hoist! and welcome from Michigan

Thank you! I told the Girlfriend that a garage is a must before anything comes along when we bought the house haha. Have to have a place to run and hide!!

 

[Darter6]

I hear that !Told the wife I'll sell the house before the shop.

Thank you! I told the Girlfriend that a garage is a must before anything comes along when we bought the house haha. Have to have a place to run and hide!!

 

[moparsaver]

Hey Fellas,

I’m new here and picked up my first mopar. I’m 25 and nothing says financial stability like trying to restore a mopar . I’ve been working on cars every chance I could growing up and worked for a restoration shop a couple of years full time out of high school. Now I’m doing commercial HVAC and enjoy doing this as a hobby. So buckle up boys, we are going full steam ahead.

Scooped up this 68’ Charger a couple of months back and figured I should just start a thread for the car seeing that I have plenty of questions and would also like to give back to others needing info.


View attachment 840082

View attachment 840044

 

[beanhead]

Well I'd surmise your car will be straighter and more square rhan anything the factory turned out in '68!
Good luck! It's gonna be a sweet car when it's done.

 

[Deere842]

Due to the frame rails being bent, cracked and rusted, I figured it was best to find a donor car to save money on AMD metal if I could and utilize OEM parts.

Picked up this 69 Coronet shell for cheap with decent frame rails & aprons. I will end up replacing the upper control arm mount unfortunately.

Then, prepared the front end for removal by bracing it.

Drilled out the spot weld and etc.

Next, to address the small rust issues. The brackets that connect the under fender aprons to the cowl has rust in between the two pieces of metal. Cut each rusted portion out and traced it on new sheet metal. I tried Napa weld through primer but it was a pain to try to plug weld. Picked up some UPOL copper and it worked much better. Still need to grind the bottom section smooth once the bracing is removed.

 

[Deere842]

Once that is done (need to get some final pictures). It’s time to address some of the rust down in the lower section of the frame rails. I’m going to get the front subframe reattached to the car then get it all media blasted at once.

 

[showard]

This will be a fun build to watch. Keep up the good work.
Great choice of cars.